Electronic housing assemblies for enclosing portable computing and/or communicating devices such as portable computers, palm-top computers, electronic notebooks, portable personal organizers, portable intelligent communicators (PICs) and the like are known. Typically, such enclosures employ a lid or cover which is pivotally connected by a hinge or an equivalent mechanical mechanism to a device base or body. A display screen, integral to the cover, may be employed such that when the cover is closed, the display screen is protected from damage.
In most instances, the cover can only pivot to a limited extent (i.e., 90.degree. to about 180.degree.). As a result, known palm-top and lap-top computers and communicators typically provide a very limited number of screen or display orientations and generally offer the user only one or two ways of orienting the display screen.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/999,515, filed Dec. 30, 1992 and assigned to the assignee of the present application discloses an enclosure for a portable computer, communicator and the like including a body portion and a cover having a user-viewable screen which are connected to each other by a hinge adapted to permit the cover to pivot 360 degrees relative to the body portion. This is accomplished through the use of a 360 degree dual pivot point or polycentric hinge.
As the cover is moved from its fully opened position to its fully closed position it will be appreciated that the cover may freely pivot about both hinge axes, simultaneously. This unrestricted freedom of motion presents a potential problem. The propensity of the hinge to rotate about both pivot points simultaneously during closure tends to cause the hinge to slip out of the position it would otherwise assume if functioning as a standard 180 degree hinge. Such propensity tends to cause the cover to misalign with the body and become ajar when it reaches the fully closed position, thereby failing to latch. The failure of the cover to properly latch, if undetected, could result in the inadvertent opening of the cover and damage to the display screen.